Manhattan Institute Honors Betsy DeVos and Larry Mone at its 19th Annual Alexander Hamilton Award Dinner

NEW YORK, NY — On May 1, The Manhattan Institute (MI) honored U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos and Manhattan Institute President Lawrence J.Mone at its 19^th annual Alexander Hamilton Award dinner in New York City. DeVos was introduced by Roger Hertog, President of the Hertog Foundation, while Mone was introduced by William J. Bratton, former New York City Police Commissioner.  

Manhattan Institute Chairman Paul Singer opened the evening praising the honorees—Mone for his 24 years steering MI as president and DeVos for her longstanding support of educational reform and school choice—and welcoming Reihan Salam as the next president of the Institute.

Of Mone, Singer said, “If not for his leadership, his insight and his hard work, New York City might have taken a very different path.” Singer praised Salam as “a compelling communicator across lines of ideological difference, a magnet for attracting and cultivating young talent, and one of America's most passionate, principled, dynamic, and creative policy minds.”

Salam called the Manhattan Institute his “intellectual lodestar” and promised that under his leadership, “we will champion a limited, effective government that will relentlessly focus on improving your quality of life.”

DeVos praised America’s great students and teachers and promised to “continue to fight for freedom. Freedom from government. Freedom for teachers. And freedom for each one of America's students. I know I can count on the Manhattan Institute to do the same.”

She called for a change in course from treating extraordinary teachers the same as ordinary ones. “Great teachers,” she said, “challenge the way things have always been done, which tends to embarrass those who don't. They're given no option, no incentive but to do basically the same thing. So, too many teachers simply move from year to year, rung to rung, up their step-scale compensation ladder. Is it any surprise when great teachers leave the classroom?”

Former New York City Police Commissioner William J. Bratton gave outgoing MI president Larry Mone a warm introduction, saying, “Larry Mone, an ordinary man, did great things for this city we all love, in a time of extraordinary challenges.”

In his speech, which elicited a standing ovation, Mone expressed pride in the Institute for its focus over the years on “quality over quantity” and its impact on public policy and public life, most importantly MI’s role in “Broken Windows policing.” “It is, in my humble opinion, the single greatest public policy success of the last half-century,” Mone said.

He likened his role as president to that of a baseball team manager, noting, “It’s an important role—you set the rotation, the lineup, call plays, make pitching changes and the like. But you don’t go up to the plate and hit the ball. You’re not the star. At the Manhattan Institute, the fellows have always been the stars. And throughout my time here, I’ve been most fortunate in managing nothing but all-stars.” 

For transcripts, video, and photos of the evening, please visit the Alexander Hamilton Award Dinner page of our website here.